Science and Junk
by IamDyingPoetry
Summary: This story takes place after the end of Boarderlands 2. Gaige has found herself on a downward spiral, who will lift her back up? It's a slice of life story with an unknown romance. Zer0, Maya, Mordecai, Lilith, Brick, Tannis, Moxxi, Tina, Torgue -Contains yuri.
1. Chapter 1

**Science and Junk Chapter 1: Psychology _and Junk_**

A little girl sat on a cliff alone. She was wearing all black and a hood covered her head. She was looking down at a funeral taking place below her. One leg dangling over the edge of the 50 foot high drop. The other a resting post for her arm.

"Hey little Lady." A tall slim man approached her. He had long dreads and was wearing a black tux with goggles. His collar sloppy his tie was loose.

"Mordecai." She glanced at him. "How did you-?"

"A lot of things are failing me." He cut her off." My eyes aren't one of them."

"Sniper." She mumbled under her breath.

"Shouldn't you be down there?"

"Shouldn't _you_?"

He smiled. "You really are a smart one aren't ya?" He walked a little closer to the girl. "I can't do much down there. I thought I could help a friend up here."

The girl was silent as she continued to look down at the events below her. The people looked like Spiderants scurrying around. Paying close attention to one redheaded "Spiderant."

"Gaige." The girl stiffened at the sound of her name. "I don't need a scope to know who you're looking at." Mordecai said taking a cigarette out of his tuxes blazer, lighting it, and pulling a drag from it. "I heard what happened."

Gaige sniffed the air a few times. "One bad habit for another." She stated flatly.

Mordecai blew smoke from his nose. "She doesn't blame you." He continued ignoring comment.

The hand on her robotic arm crunched a little of the land she was sitting on.

The man saw but made no actions on it. He paused again. "So you need to stop blaming yourself."

The robotic girl jumped up faster then the man could see. "How can I?!" She wailed. Her right hand on her chest and her arm in the direction the cliff. The Sniper stood there looking at her unfazed. "He was right there in front of me! I should've save him!" She yelled. "He was alive! And-and he saved us. All of us! He-he saved me like, 3-7 times during the battle?" She spoke animatedly with hand gesture. "There was this Badass Loader behind me. I thought that was it but he came and saved me right there! He said, 'keep it up kid. I got your back.' " Her hands dropped to her sides while her eyes started to water. "If only I had his." Her head made a thud on Mordecai chest. Her whole body weight leaning on the slim figured man.

He stood there. Taking one hand out if his pocket, he placed it on the short girls head and she started to cry.

Mordecai came back down to the funeral holding a sleeping Mecromancer.

I Brick, Lilith, Maya, and Krieg met the normally drunken man half way. Axton, Moxxi, Zero and Tiny Tina were by the statue of their fallen soldier and some of the others left. The ones that were still here were all dressed up nice in black. Even Krieg looked good with his black tux Maya helped him with. With ripped off sleeveless blazer and all.

Lilith and Brick approached they're old friend. "How is she?" The red haired siren asked.

"She took it hard, but a least she didn't jump." The brown skinned dread haired man replied.

"You don't think she would've..." Maya started.

"Strip the flesh?" Krieg inquired.

"Yeah." The blue haired woman nodded.

"I just had a feel she might've did something self destructive. No real confirmation on what her motives were up there." He replied coolly.

"I had that feeling too. And one thing we know..." Lilith began looking towards her two oldest friends.

"Always trust your gut." Brick finished crossing his arms.

"Yeah." Mordecai agreed. He looked down at the girl in his arms. "I don't think this little one should be alone."

"Where does the little slab live?" Brick asked.

"Not sure. She's been saying with us ever since we met up with her and Krieg. But when we defeated Jack she kinda went her own way. Living in abandoned Bandit huts in The Highlands." Maya said.

"Well what about before?" Lilith asked.

"Not sure. Before we met it was just them two." She pointed to the physically fit insane man.

Everyone looked to the 'reformed' psycho. He cleared his throat. While everyone waited in anticipation. "Little Badass girl and Psycho are meat from the same loaf!"

"Translation?" The red head raised her eyebrow to her blue haired counterpart. Everyone looked at her as well.

"Um, they're family?" Maya asked him.

"Pretty blue haired lady knows." He nodded.

"Okay, so she should stay with you guys." Mordecai said bringing her to the psycho.

Krieg backed away waving his hands. "Love is hurt but would salt the wounds!"

"He trying to say he's afraid being with us might be a bad reminder. Since we were all there." Maya informed them.

"Besides this Stallion need to graze without no colts!" He grinned mischievously at the blue siren.

Everyone looked at Maya. A deep blush crossed her face. "I-I didn't understand that one." She stuttered looking away from them.

"Okay then they're out of the question." Lilith said.

"I'll take on the Mini Meca Badass Slab." Brick stated strongly pointing to his broadened chest with his thumb.

"The Mini Meca what?" Maya and Mordicai asked in unison. Even Krieg's sane inner voice asked confused.

"I've been told by Tina I would make a great father." He continued oblivious to their confusion.

"No offense Brick but you might explode your house with her in it by mistake." Lilith placed her hand on his shoulder looking at him apologetically.

"Hey, that was just that one time. I miss Scruffy." The giant looked down defeated.

"It's weird to have pet skags man." Mordecai added.

"Your obsession with explosives only got worst." Litith continued.

"What?" Bric said shocked. He really didn't think his obsession had gotten worst. He felt that there was no way it could. He had grenade mods for days in his stash.

"Not that it wasn't expected... since your roommate is Mr. Torgue." Lilith tried to sugarcoat it but failed.

"Mr. Torgue is awesome!" Brick smiled. "Best roommate ever! Way better then those slabs I used to go vault hunting with."

"Dude. We're right here." The sniper stated flatly.

"Oh sorry."

"Anyways," Lilith injected exasperatedly. "Maya, Krieg and Brick are all out of the question." she turned to the man holding the girl. "That leaves you and me." She used her thumb to point back forth between them.

"Me?" Mordecai asked more shocked them he actually looked. His demeanor was cool as normal. Only giving Lilith an eyebrow raise. "I don't think I'm capable of raising one of _these._ She's cool and all but..." He shook his head.

"Well being around Lilith will be a direct reminder of Roland." Maya pointed out.

Lilith looked away and folded her arms tight around her chest. Rocking a little on her heals.

Maya covered her mouth and gasped. "I'm so sorry, Lil. I just—"

"No, you're right Maya." She held her hand up in a gesture to stop her fellow Siren. "I am a reminder of him." Closing her eyes she sighed a little then looked up at her friend. "Then it's settled. Mordecai will keep her."

"Wait a minute—" The former Vault Hunter mentioned, trying to interject.

"Alright Mordy!" Brick exclaimed as he patted the shorter man on the back. Making him jump a little and accidentally stirring the sleeping girl still in his arms. "Way to take one for the team." Brick smiled at him.

"But I didn't—"

"You know this would be good for both of them." Maya added. Thinking about how they both were grieving. She knew Mordecai was still not over Bloodwing, she wasn't either being that her, Salvador and Axon were the ones who killed the bird. Zero, Krieg and Gaige were doing a mission for Tannis at the time. _'I'm glad she wasn't there for that.'_ The Siren thought.

"Good how? And aren't there 3 other members of the team that could—"

"I'm so glad we came to this unanimous decision." The Fire Hawk added smugly.

"Unanimous?!" Mordecai raised his voice slightly higher. "Okay that does it Lil! I—"

"Love is MURDER and I'M good at it!" Krieg yelled narrowing his eye at Mordecai.

Everyone looked at the sniper wide eye.

~Sigh. "Ah fuck it."

 **A/N: First posted fanfic. Thanks for reading. Please comment. (You know you wanna.) Also if anyone wants to beta this lame story PM me. Thanks again.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Science and Junk Chapter 2: Life and _Junk_**

 _I remember smiling. Thinking, "We did it, we beat the baddies and this mission was in the bag."_

 _Then all I felt was blood on my face._

Gaige jumbled up out of her sleep panting harshly. She placed her real hand over her forehead. 'It was just a dream.' She thought to herself trying to calm herself down from yet another one of her panic attacks.

 _'But it wasn't a dream.'_ Her eyes started to watered. ' _Damn it I'm crying again. And fuck my head hurts!_ ' Her hand grasping her bangs tightly. Her robotic hand griping what ever she was on. ' _Wait what am I on?_ ' She opened her eyes and realized her surroundings. "A bed in a cave..? Where the fuck am I?" Gaige was indeed in a cave.

"Hey kid." The slow, distinctive, sound boot steps echoed through out the cave. "Glad to see you're up." Mordecai came in the area. He leaned his shoulder into the curve of a cave wall with his arms folded in front of himself.

"Mordecai? You brought me here?" Gaige asked skeptically. "Why?"

"Well the others were talking and thought maybe you could use some company for a while." He said in his low deep yet slightly raspy voice.

"And they chose you?" Her disapproval not escaping Mordecai' ears.

"That's what I said." He replied with a smirk. Trying hard not to laugh in at her obvious disbelief.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I don't need some pity driven baby sitter." She said as she started to get up. "I'm fine on my own." Her attempt at showing her independence failed as she stumbled on her way walking from the bed. Her head was throbbing and she lost her balance. Mordecai was there before she could fall. The girl didn't hear or see him but somehow he managed to cross the 20 ft distant between them, grab her, and placed her back on the bed.

"Pity? You think I pity you?" He smiled softly as he placed her on the bed gently and helped her sit upright. He was amused at how the girl thought. ' _The little shrimp reminds me of, well, me.'_ The whole independent loner thing was cute to him. 'Been there, done that, got a scar to prove it.'

Gaige didn't say anything to the older man. She was too busy being mad at herself for falling and feeling so weak. She looked down at her hands in her lap.

"Gaige" Mordecai bent down on one knee to the girls level. "You're one of the strongest people I know. I admire you for that. I could never pity someone I respect so much." He gave her a small grin.

Gaige remained silent.

"Look," Mordecai sighed. "I was a little reluctant at first. I'm not the best example, ya'know?" The sniper rub the back of his head. "But I think it might be a good thing. I mean, we're friends aren't we?"

"Pshh, sure." She said turning her head away .

He got up. "Then think of it as a sleep over, I guess." The sniper was trying real hard. There was a long silence awkward silence between them. "Um, you hungry?"

"I guess I could eat." Truthfully the girl had not eaten in days. She was malnourished and it showed but Mordecai was too dense to notice. He was just trying to break the awkwardness.

"Good cause Harmerlock gave me this mission ages ago to kill some Super Ultimate Badass Bullymong and I make the best Bullymong Gumbo this side of Pandora." He smiled.

"Sounds cool. I guess." She smiled slightly back at him.

- **Science and Junk** -

"It was so awesome!" Gaige exclaimed bouncing up and down in her seat. She was surrounded by Axton, Maya, and Salvador in Moxxi's bar. "He was like boom, with his legendary grenade mod! Then he like shot a Mongrel right between the eyes! Finally on our way back a whole swarm of Rakks came out of nowhere. This badass picked me up and Mordecai shot the wings off of it in one hit. It-was-amazing!" She said in a singsong voice. "And the Gumbo wasn't half bad either."

"Bullymong meat is the best!" Salvador agreed enthusiastically.

"Sounds like you've had a lot of fun with Mordecai." Maya said.

"Yeah he's cool." She said trying to not seem all that imressed.

"Not cooler then us though. I mean we had adventures like at all the time."

"Of course not Axton but that was my first adventure with him we've had quite a few and with the other guys too. I'm telling you guys, there something really awesome about the original vault hunters."

"Well technically there were many vault hunter before them, even Jack—" Axton tried explain.

"Really cool!" She yelled. "I mean," she tried to calm herself again. "Maya totally knows what I'm talking about. Don't ya Mai?"

"Hanging out with Lilith is pretty cool." She said calmly but under her cool demeanor Maya was a total fan girl of the Fire Hawk. I mean she has a cult for a reason.

"It's cool that you get to hangout with her." Gaige said saddened. Thinking back to Roland she still couldn't face the other Siren. She really thought Lilith was cool too. She looked up to her when they first fought together.

Everyone saw where this conversation was going, down hill fast. Salvador hit Axton.

"Ow!" He looked at the short man. "I mean, come on Maya that's racist. Mentioning the only other Siren. Us humans not badass enough for ya'?"

"What?" She looked at him oddly. Then notice his face and what he was trying to do. "Oh, oh! No. Pshh. Yeah we're cool but uh, Brick! Brick is awesome. He's great." She nodded to added on to what she was saying. "We had some great missions together."

"Oh yeah, Brick is awesome! Tina, Brick, Mordy and I were all playing Bunkers and Badasses! We made it more live action. And it became a game of Bandit Hunt. There were skags and Brick tried to keep one, even though Mordy didn't think it was such a good idea, but then one of his sticky grenade mods got stuck to him and he blow up. Mr. Yum Yums never stood a chance." She said sadly but broke out into laughter. "It was fuckin' awesome!"

"Wow you've really grown to like Mordecai. How long has it been since you moved in?" Maya asked.

"Like 1-4 months now." She said holding up one finger then four. "Buh it's not like I 'moved in' moved in. It's just like a very long sleep over."

Everyone got quiet.

"...That's moving in." Salvador broke silence.

"Hey sugars." Moxxi came by their area in the bar. "You Vault Hunters doin' alright?"

"Yeah we're good." Axton said.

"What you guys up too?" She said sitting down at the booth with the group.

"We're just catching up with Gaige." Maya said.

"Oh. That's sweet." The Bartender said looking at the girl in question. "I notice I haven't seen you all in ages."

"Well, we've been busy with missions. That's why the others aren't here. Krieg is doing a mission for Sir Hammerlock and Zero for Tannis." Maya explained.

"We're going to go play some darts." Axton said pointing at the dart board.

Maya nodded as he and Salvador left the table. Moxxi scooted more into the booth as they left. "So how have you ladies been?"

"I've been good. Moving in with Krieg has been... an experience."

"I'm pretty sure you're not talking about you're usual XP there, Hun." Moxxi smiled which earned her a blush from Maya. "And what about you mini sugar?" She turned her attention to the Mecha user. "Haven't seen you in awhile."

' _Hey, I'm not that tiny or... sweet._ ' "I've been around. Mostly with Mordecai." Gaige replied.

"Mordy?" She asked slightly surprised. "That's interesting. No wonder he hasn't been around the bar lately." She smiled at the girl.

Gaige blushed a little. For some unknown reason whenever Gaige was too close to Moxxi she would get hot. She also noticed she couldn't look the bar keep in the eye for too long. "Yeah, he kinda switched to smoking now." She mumbled looking down at her lap. She knew her face was red like a chili pepper.

' _Aw she's doing that shy thing again. She is too cute._ ' Moxxi thought full aware of Gaige's predicament. She flashed her perfect smile again.

Maya however was clueless. "Gaige are you alr—" before she could finish she felt a projectile coming at her. The Siren quickly phaselocked the item into her bubble out of reflex. "A... Dart?" She released her phaselock and allowed it to fall in her hand. Then Maya looked up at Axton and Salvador.

"He did it!" They both yelled pointing at the other.

"Grrrr!" The blue haired woman crushed the needled stick in her hand in half. "You guys are so fucking dead!" She got up, wings full spread, electricity cracking through her body, she ran towards them. Leaving Gaige alone with the mistress of Pandora.

"Those kids will never change." Moxxi said smiling at their humor.

Gaige just nods at her. Still looking down. She wasn't sure why she felt this way.

Moxxi looked back at the young seemly timid girl. "I'm glad to see you're doing better Hun." She said reaching over and placing a hand on Gaige's shoulder stunning the girl to look at her. She smiled again but stopped for a moment to think. "Hey Gaige?"

"Uh yeah..?" The girl slightly shivered. She never heard her name said in such a seductive manner.

"I was wandering, did Mordy ever..." Moxxi snooker her head. "You know what? Forget I said anything. Well, I better go back to bar keeping." She said standing. "It was nice seeing you Gaige. You're growing up to be quite the fine young lady." Gaige blushed harder then before. Moxxi was genuine in her words but that blush triggered her. "And I do hope you'll visit more often so I can see how 'fine' that young woman will become." The bartender purred. Winking right before she got up leaving Gaige in confusion. With that face she couldn't help Moxxi couldn't help herself even if she tried.

' _Whoa... I think I might pass out_.' Gaige thought. Her face ever so red. 'How does she do... that!?' The girl thought as she watched the older woman walk away, Subconsciously paying attention to the sway in her hips.

Just as she was dazing off. A random bandit comes up. In a suave tone he asks, "Is, um, this seat ta—"

"Keep it movin' pal!" She took out her Maliwan SMG. Without ever taking her eyes off the Bartender she pointed it at the bandit.

With his hands in the air the bandit calmly... ran the fuck for his dear life.

 **A/N: Hope you guys like the chapter. Just fluff. No actual plot here. x)**

 **Please review. I'd like to know what you guys think. It inspires me so. lol.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Science and Junk Chapter 3: Caring and** ** _Junk_**

"And... Bulls eye."Mordecai shot a Scrakk right in its mouth, while yawning in the air, landing a one hit critical kill.

"Whoa, that's amazing." Gaige said in awe. "Dude, it was flying like 50 yards away! How did you do that?!"

"I just aim, and pull the trigger." Mordecai replied nonchalantly.

"Aim?" Gaige asked in a confused tone.

 _'She's kidding right?'_ Mordecai thought. ' _I mean the girl's a Vault Hunter she has to know how to aim...right?_ ' He tried to reassure himself.

Gaige pouted a little admiring the sniper. Gaige is... The opposite of a sniper with her gun wielding. She's more of a, uh did I hit it? No? Death Trap!

"Well little lady, let's see what'chu got." Mordecai scan the area for a new target. "See there," he points to a Thresher. "Aim for the dot on its arms. Try to take off one of its tentacles."

"Um, okay"

"Use your scope."

"Okay." Gaige looked through the scope of her Valdof sniper riffle she picked up on a dead Nomad. You know, after she'd kill'em. The Engineer took aim pointing at the joint of the tentacle. She fired.

The recoil knocked her back some. "Did it hit?" She asked recovering from the kick back.

A moment after she asked the bullet came flying back at them.

"Whoa!" Mordecai pushed Gaige away from him letting the bullet fly right between them. It bounced on all the surfaces of the cave. "Get down!" The Sniper placed himself over Gaige shielding the girl. The bullet made a swooshing noise on its way out. Mordecai shot up at the sound of it watching it outside. Gaige followed as well. It bounced off a few rocks back and forth, ricochet off a curved cliff, and then finally hit the Thresher square in the back of the head. The creature fell face first down into the ground.

"...whoa." Mordecai hopped out of the cave and ran over to the dead beast Gaige following him. He whistled bending down to examine the kill. "That's a clean hit to the base of the skull. It must be what, 13 centimeters deep?" He looked at Gaige. "If it wasn't for the Thresters That's impressive."

She smiled sheepishly.

He got up dusting his pants of a little as he walked over to the Mecromancer. "Does that always happen?"

"Well, not to the extreme but close enough."

"Cool."

 **-Science and Junk-**

Mordecai was outside the cave smoking, looking up at the night sky. His little companion was not to far by. On top of the cave they've came to call home. She was lying down facing the opposite direction the dreaded head was. She didn't hear him or even knew he was outside the cave until she smelled the now familiar sent of Mordecai's cigarettes.

"Why'd you switch?" Gaige asked. It was almost as if she was talking to herself. She made no movement to look at him and her voice wasn't even raised to try to reach his ears but she knew it would. Their relationship had come to a point were there wasn't any beating around the bush. Only questions and answers.

The older vault hunter took another inhale and release. "I needed to get sober." He reply calm as always.

"Well, that's obvious. You were once so drunk you thought Zer0 was a chick." Gaige smiled over recollection.

"Hey, there's no telling what that guy is." He defended himself. The sniper smiled though. "No. I have reasons."

"You caring to share said reasons?" She asked to the air.

He chuckled. "Come on inside. I'll show ya."

Gaige was confused but jump down anyways and followed Mordecai into the cave. There were different caverns that they used to sleep in. The sniper went as far to put up round shape doors for Gaige's privacy and did some work to make it feel homey. Indoor pluming, cables bringing in electricity, and a throughly F-up couch. All the improvements courtesy of The Slab Master (Brick) and his flunkies. They even went as far to carve a Vault Symbol in the cave.

Mordecai took Gaige to a part of the Cave she's never been before. It was way deep inside the cavern. Gaige didn't even knew their home was this big. She saw light upheld and figured that's were they were headed. At there destination was a big hay stack. "This is why."

The girl looked at the stack of hay then back at him. "You uh, planing to turn this into gold or somethin' Morty?"she asked picking up a single strain of hay.

He laughed. "No." He walked up to the stack and place both his hands in it. When he retracted his hands he was holding an egg.

Gaige's eyes lit up. "Is that...?"

He nodded. "This is why I have to be sober. Wouldn't want to get so drunk that I smash the thing." He said holding the egg carefully. "When I found this place I decided to make it home so I could keep a look out on the eye."

Gaige nodded. "So this is Bloodwings is baby?" She approached the egg carefully. As if she would scare it if she made any sudden movements.

"Er-hm. Wanna hold him?"

"N-no thanks." She shook her hands. "Wait, how do you know it's not a girl?"

"Well the think is, they're always boys."

"What? Bloodwing was a girl!... Right?"

"Yes. But when she was a chick she was actually a dude."

Gaige's eyes went wide with confusion.

The old Sniper laughed. "Okay, lemme break it down to you. Bloodwing is—was..." He pause in memory and fought back tears. Gaige didn't notice his eyes watering, even though he wasn't wearing his goggles, but she still sensed he was hurting. "a type of bird that, when reached adult hood, would changes into the opposite gender."

"Oh."

"Yeah. They're a rare hunting bird that are born boys then turn into girls later. They get to be both which is pretty interesting." Mordecai placed the egg back into the hay stack.

"Yeah, Sequential Hermaphroditism in Aves. Very interesting." Gaige truly in amazement. "Wish I could learn more about them."

"Very few know anything about'em." The Sniper rubbed the back of his head in though.

"Then I'll just have to study him when he gets here." Mordecai gave her a look. "Not like that! Jeez Mordy, have some faith in me. I won't go hurting him. I'm not that wicked." She paused for a moment. "I'm still pretty wicked though." She smiled.

He laughed. "I know Gaige. I was just mess in' with ya."

"Ah-huh." Gaige have him a taunting smile."Let's hope you don't think I'll abused the newest member to our little make-shift family!" She covered her mouth and looked a Mordecai, who was just looking at her with a smug like grin and his arms crossed. "I meant—!"

Once a again the former Vault hunter laughed. "It's okay shorty. " he smiled. "I like that our little family is growing too."

She smiled back at him.

"C'mon. Let's get some sleep. Even the " _wicked"_ needs rest ."

 **A/N: Haven't updated in awhile. Sorry. I've been working on the actual plot but here's some filler. Enjoy.**


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